Resisting the Current

The occasion was a faculty lunch with presentations from three members of the local bar. One was a partner at one of the largest and most respected firms in the city. Another was a former student of great ability and charm who had left one of the other large elite firms to form his own small, successful firm. The third, if I recall correctly, practiced with one of the federal agencies. Our purpose was to reinforce contacts with the city\u27s practitioners and learn more concerning their views of contemporary law practice. I remember the two private practitioners more clearly because I had familiarity with and admiration for both the large firm and the young lawyer, and because I was taken quite by surprise by one aspect of the message they brought us: each made it clear that law practice had changed, and that there was no longer time for mentoring. The need for both associates and partners to accumulate billable hours and to spend time attracting clients simply left no significant opportunity for the mentoring relationship. That this was true was not so much the surprise. What I found distressing and memorable was the matter-of- fact presentation, the absence of any indication that these lawyers felt either alarm or shame that this was their situation. Professor Schiltz has done a great service in posting a warning about the current reality of practice in large elite law firms. The picture he reveals is not a pretty one. The law firm work environment which our most able law students enter will diminish them in significant ways. Few will successfully resist the pressures they will encounter. And there seems to be very little that legal educators or young lawyers can do about it. It is hard to fight the market, hard to resist a dominant culture. One thinks of swimming in the ocean or floating a river; for the most part you go where the water takes you, controlling your direction only within quite modest confines. Those of us who teach the legal profession course (also known as professional responsibility or ethics ) are well aware that although we can provide some perspectives and models, transmit some knowledge, open some questions and plant some seeds, the major determinants of professional behavior will result from role modeling and practice pressures during the neophyte lawyer\u27s apprenticeship experience

ATLS: Catheter and tube placement

The specific objectives of this experiment are: to evaluate the rack mounted equipment and medical supplies necessary for medical procedures; to evaluate the attachments, mounting points, and inner drawer assemblies for the medical supplies; and to evaluate the procedures for performing medical scenarios. The resources available in the HMF miniracks to accomplish medical scenarios and/or procedures include: medical equipment mounted in the racks; a patch panel with places to attach tubing and catheters; self contained drawers full of critical care medical supplies; and an ALS 'backpack' for deploying supplies. The attachment lines, tubing and associated medical supplies will be deployed and used with the equipment and a patient mannequin. Data collection is provided by direct observations by the inflight experimenters, and analysis of still and video photography

Implications of Manipulations of Soil Quality on the Growth of European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) in a Greenhouse

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica L.) is an invasive shrub that is capable of changing the nitrogen content of a soil through the deposition of its nitrogen rich leaf litter. This change creates conditions that may favor recolonizing by buckthorn and negatively affect the growth of native plants. In this greenhouse experiment, we examined the effect of altering soil quality by adding mulch comprised of buckthorn wood on above and belowground biomass, stem length and leaf production of buckthorn saplings. We found that buckthorn saplings planted in buckthorn mulch had reduced stem length and leaf production compared to growth in control sites. Extrapolating from these results we suggest that amending soils in sites set aside for biodiversity conservation and restoration may result in reduced growth of this invasive shrub

The Nature of the Variable Galactic Center Source IRS16SW

We report measurements of the light curve of the variable Galactic Center source IRS16SW. The light curve is not consistent with an eclipsing binary or any other obvious variable star. The source may be an example of a high mass variable predicted theoretically but not observed previously.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by Ap

Excimer lasers

The results of a two-year investigation into the possibility of developing continuous wave excimer lasers are reported. The program included the evaluation and selection of candidate molecular systems and discharge pumping techniques. The K Ar/K2 excimer dimer molecules and the xenon fluoride excimer molecule were selected for study; each used a transverse and capillary discharges pumping technique. Experimental and theoretical studies of each of the two discharge techniques applied to each of the two molecular systems are reported. Discharge stability and fluorine consumption were found to be the principle impediments to extending the XeF excimer laser into the continuous wave regime. Potassium vapor handling problems were the principal difficulty in achieving laser action on the K Ar/K2 system. Of the four molecular systems and pumping techniques explored, the capillary discharge pumped K Ar/K2 system appears to be the most likely candidate for demonstrating continuous wave excimer laser action primarily because of its predicted lower pumping threshold and a demonstrated discharge stability advantage